ACFO, the trade body for business car managers, has called on the Government to provide more accurate information on which accidents involved at-work drivers.
In a written response to the Department for Transport’s consultation document ‘A Safer Way – Making Britain’s Roads the Safest in the World’ the organisation said: “Fleets stand accused – on fairly flimsy statistical evidence – of being overrepresented in accident and casualty figures. This has significant implications for organisations for potential input into the corporate manslaughter arena.”
Various studies have claimed that about a third of all road deaths and serious injuries involve an at-work driver, which equates to nearly 850 deaths a year. However, there is no firm evidence of this figure.
The written response added: “The overall road safety strategy should provide an accurate sub-strategy for driving at work/management of on-road risks, which is fair and unambiguous.
“A clear, stable, well-defined performance indicator is definitely required: the proper identification of at-work casualties to ensure that an effective and accurate picture is built up, of the real extent of duty of care failures among the fleet community.”
